81% of US Companies Run Business-Critical Services in Virtual Environments

admin4 June 2012

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The majority of businesses in the US and Europe are employing virtualization technologies to run business-critical services. This is one of the key findings of a recent worldwide survey by O+K Research. The results of the survey indicate that US companies are most likely to run the most important infrastructure in a virtual environment, with 81% of businesses admitting this fact. Companies in Europe are a close second – 78% of businesses use virtual infrastructure for the most important applications. All business representatives cite high reliability, efficiency and flexibility of backup and recovery options as the top three reasons to go virtual.

The survey, conducted in March 2012, collated the opinions of professionals in companies with at least 100 employees and sounded out their thoughts on virtualization. All the participants are involved in making key decisions about IT security infrastructure and policy, as well as third-party IT services. All businesses surveyed have already implemented virtualization technology or are planning to implement it in the near future. The majority of businesses are not new to virtualization: 77% of companies in the US and 67% in Europe deployed a virtual infrastructure at least one year ago, and 17% of US businesses have more than three years of practical experience in the field. Despite the high level of expertise, 53% of businesses in the US and 55% in Europe are reluctant to adopt specialised security solutions for virtual environments. Considering the uptake of virtualization across the US and Europe, it is evident that this trend will likely also impact businesses operating in South Africa, and as such, local businesses need to ensure that when embracing the trend of virtualization, their critical business data is secured and that all decision makers are aware of the serious implications that a unsecure virtual server can have on a business.

“For the majority of businesses virtual environments are no longer experimental. They are widely adopted and used in the most business-critical applications, such as databases, email and CRM systems,” commented Konstantin Voronkov, Senior Product Manager for Virtualization Solutions at Kaspersky Lab. “Despite that, 27% of the US and 42% of European businesses mistakenly believe there are fewer security risks in virtual environments and 62% apply the same security policy to physical and virtual infrastructure. This is not always an optimal way to secure your business infrastructure. Virtual environments should be treated with specific policies and tailored security solutions, such as Kaspersky Security for Virtualization with its efficient agentless approach and integration with the entire security infrastructure delivered by Kaspersky Security Center.”